Post subject: How do you feel about using discarded shells, bones, etc?

Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2011 10:00 am

ol' garly cooch

Joined: Wed Oct 20, 2010 3:41 pmPosts: 2828Location: Kashyyyk

I'm just curious. I don't buy shells, bones, etc--but if i find something on a walk on the beach, or while hiking, I do use it in some of my home decor. I know to many, this isn't vegan. I would never kill anything to get these items, or pay for it. Part of me deciding about being vegan is to use what I have and as it needs replacement, then I find a vegan and slave free alternative. I do have one shadow box with a collection of bones and i think of that animal often and use it to meditate on how important life really is.

Post subject: Re: How do you feel about using discarded shells, bones, etc

Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2011 10:26 am

Remembers When Veganism Was Cool

Joined: Tue Oct 19, 2010 9:42 pmPosts: 2424

Yeah, I think it's a totally personal decision and some grand vegan consensus is highly unlikely. As long as someone's not using found animal stuff in their crafts they sell and calling them vegan, I don't have an issue with it (not saying you would do this, but other people have).

Post subject: Re: How do you feel about using discarded shells, bones, etc

Posted: Wed May 18, 2011 7:33 am

Thinks Plants Have Feelings

Joined: Sun Oct 31, 2010 4:14 amPosts: 66Location: Berlin

It's definitely weird, because I love collecting shells, and I have no problems with collecting feathers, but I would not collect bones. Except for cuttlebones maybe, if I knew someone close by who has birds at home. But that is different, because it would be useful, not decoration. It does not make sense, somehow, and I guess it just shows that we can not shake off all the things we were raised with. When hardcore vegans say that having and wearing your old leather shoes is like having a lampshade made of human skin, it's the same thing - You can't compare it, because one we were raised with, and the other we always thought of as deeply wrong. Now we've come to the conclusion that killing and using animals for our own enjoyment is wrong, but somehow it does not seem to reach to the non-fluffy ones in our brains with all consequences, unconsciously. (Do I sound confused?)

Post subject: Re: How do you feel about using discarded shells, bones, etc

Posted: Wed May 18, 2011 9:27 am

ol' garly cooch

Joined: Wed Oct 20, 2010 3:41 pmPosts: 2828Location: Kashyyyk

thanks everyone for the feedback. for me, i wouldn't buy that stuff to make something. all the bones, shells, etc. i have were found items. i've made a couple of shadow box collages using these items, and every time i look at them i try to meditate and think of the life of that animal, what they did, and reflect upon both their life and death. it has helped me gain perspective on why i do what i do, why i eat the way i eat, and about the beauty of biology.

i have a necklace my spouse gave me made with a discarded shell, woven straw, and discarded plastic made by a little girl on the island of ebeye in the marshall islands. she just gave it to him for visiting their island-(he lived in kwajalien), but he paid the girl, even though she refused his money. when i wear it, i think of the shell, but i also think of that girl, living in a shack, wondering what she spent the money on, hoping that some day the people of her island have a better life.

Post subject: Re: How do you feel about using discarded shells, bones, etc

Posted: Sun Dec 02, 2012 11:19 am

Saggy Butt

Joined: Thu Nov 04, 2010 6:10 pmPosts: 307

caterpillar wrote:

Don't take shells that look like they'd make good hermit crab homes! They need them!

That's my one stipulation in collecting detritus - don't take anything that some other creature can re-use. Other than that, I scavenge bones, crab shells, feathers, and seashells all over the place. I brought home a few big camel and goat bones from the desert in Egypt, and I have a crab arm from my hometown on my windowsill, as well as half a jaw from a hedgehog I found rotting in some loam in Scotland.

My roommate's dad is an artist, and he uses found animal bones in a lot of his work, but he never buys them, I don't think? I know that whenever he finds interesting roadkill, he'll drag it into his back garden and let it rot clean. He has a whole storage space in his basement dedicated to bones.

I don't have a problem with using bones - whatever was using them once upon a time certainly doesn't need them now, and keeping a few interestingly shaped or moss-stained or scratched-up ones as trinkets isn't doing any harm. And I think bones and skulls and things are really pretty/interesting.

Post subject: Re: How do you feel about using discarded shells, bones, etc

Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2012 3:12 pm

Memorized Veganomicon

Joined: Sat Sep 29, 2012 3:33 pmPosts: 96Location: In the cold north

Bones feel really eerie to use I think. Once I accidentally bought a bone bracelet second hand and felt really bad when I realised what it was. I don't know. Buying shells and such second hand feels okay. However I would never buy fur. I don't think it's okay to promote the usage of it. I don't know why.